


Back in Business, Baby!

by bye_bye_firefly



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: (duh), Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Adult Dipper Pines, Adult Gideon Gleeful, Adult Mabel Pines, Adult Pines Twins, Bill Cipher Redemption, Bill Cipher Returns, Good Brother Dipper Pines, Good Sister Mabel Pines, Gravity Falls Is Weird, Human Bill Cipher, Older Pines Twins, Returning to Gravity Falls, Sibling Bonding, Sleepwalking, The Power Of Mabel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-04
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-04-07 11:25:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19084054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bye_bye_firefly/pseuds/bye_bye_firefly
Summary: The Pines twins return to Gravity Falls and are horrified to find the one person they didn't expect to find...for a second.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't mean for this to get so long...oh well! now there are chapters to this madness!

Five years had passed since the last time the Pines twins found themselves in Gravity Falls. Their parents wouldn't allow them to go back once they found out what had happened that summer. Of course, both of them protested at first, but Dipper, being Dipper, dwelled on the idea that he wouldn't be able to go to Gravity Falls and eventually convinced himself that was the best course of action. Maybe it was best that he didn't spend another summer in that town. There were a lot of scars- physically and mentally- from when he spent his summer there and he knew that Mabel was suffering, too. It was best that they simply stayed away from Gravity Falls.

Mabel didn't think so. Every time they reached the end of the school year, she'd  _beg_ their parents to go back to Gravity Falls. "I just wanna go for  _one_ week! Just  _one!"_ Her whines, cute eyes, and pouting never did any good. She missed the friends she made in Gravity Falls and she missed her uncles. She missed the atmosphere and watching her brother freak out over the smallest noises and teasing him when he would inevitably freak out over the shadow of a tree. She wanted to go into the woods and find something new to mess around with. 

"You wanna go back to Gravity Falls, too, huh, Waddles?" Waddles oinked quietly. He was getting old but was still responsive and overall happy with his life. "Well, I've got a plan. Don't worry about a thing." 

Mabel absolutely had a plan and, in her mind, it was  _genius._ She would pack up, buy two tickets for both her and Dipper and then tell him that she spent so much money on the tickets that he  _had_ to go with her. She'd have to hide Waddles in a bag or disguise him somehow, but the plan was foolproof! She waited for after they got out of school to enact the plan and decided that going during the fall or winter would have to do. She needed to be eighteen to even try something like this. She quit her job, took the money she saved up all these years, and spent it on a few things: two suitcases and two tickets. 

Her plan worked a little in her favour because she honestly had spent most of her money on the tickets; seriously? $88 for just one ticket from her town to Gravity Falls? If he knew what was good for him, he'd accept the ticket once she told him the price point for this. Once her plan was finally set up, she smiled down at her work. She managed to pack both her and Dipper's suitcase in an hour and she actually did it  _nicely-_ she folded and everything! If he was not appreciative for her work, she'd definitely go nuts.

The only thing left to do was wait for Dipper.

 

Dipper entered the house and let out a sigh. Assuming he was alone, he turned on the speaker like he always did and turned on some music. This was pretty much the only time he ever got to be able to dance around the house and take care of things while listening to BABBA. They'd actually made a comeback a year ago and made another album, so  _of course,_ he bought it. He listened to that album so many times that he actually memorised the order of the songs on it. He could not have been prouder.

He thought for a moment and stood idly in the middle of the living room. All seemed normal here, but something was  _definitely_ off. "Waddles!" He called into the house and watched the pig waddle down the hall. He snickered and got him some food like he usually did. "Here you go, bud." This time, Waddles did not take his food happily. He pulled at Dipper's jeans and oinked at him, making Dipper narrow his eyes. "What?" He walked halfway down the hall and looked back at Dipper. "Do you want me to follow you? What did you do?" He walked behind him and was led into his bedroom, opening the door and seeing Mabel sitting on top of two suitcases with her right leg crossed over her left. "You look like an archvillain. What's with the suitcases?"

Mabel giggled and said, "Maybe I am an archvillain! I have one goon, so I'm not too big." 

"You shouldn't go around saying that you're an archvillain. Again, can you explain the suitcases?" 

"Well," Mabel started, launching herself off the suitcases, "how about you guess first?"

"I have no idea."

"No, come on! Just guess! Entertain me, Dipper!"

"Okay, fine. I'll make a really crazy guess: we're going back to Gravity Falls to free Bill Cipher from his cold, cold demise in the mindscape because you are  _criminally insane."_

Mabel put on a face that confirmed that his crazy guess wasn't so crazy. "I-I mean, I'm not looking to free Bill, but, um..."

His eyes widened and he shook his head, saying, "I thought we were done with this."

"Well,  _you_ were done with it, but I have never been done with this." She took his hands and put on a bright, hopeful smile. "Come on! One more mystery, one more round, please?"

"Oh my god, Mabel..." He shook his head and pulled away from her. "Listen, I've completely given this up. We shouldn't go back. The last time we went, so many bad things happened and-"

"You know what happens to kids in school, right? Bullying, right? They still go to school, _right?"_

"Mabel, that's entirely different! Bullying and almost dying because of a mistake that  _you_ made-"

"Dipper, please!" Tears started filling her eyes, making Dipper feel immense guilt fill his chest. He wanted to say no to her. He wanted to rip up whatever hopes she had and tell her that they were not going back- ever. It was too hard. Her happiness meant a lot to him. 

He sighed and took a step toward her. "I think..." He played with his thumbs and finally looked into her eyes. "I think we can go for a little bit." 

"Really?" She smiled a bit and wiped up her tears. "Do you really mean it?"

"We can go to Gravity Falls." He jumped when she suddenly wrapped him up in her arms and started hopping around.

_"Thank you!"_

 

Dipper sat in the attic and looked out into the forest through the large window. He adjusted his body in the red window seat and looked off into the forest. He and Mabel had done the things they did when they were here five years ago and, in all sincerity, it was fun. They found more creatures and met up with the gnomes again- which was _delightful,_ he would add sarcastically- so this summer...well,  _fall_ was going great.

Today, he spent his time in the forest with Mabel and found these weird balls of fluff. They seemed friendly and ran away from them when they made their presence known. Dipper wasn't sure if Ford had seen them, so he asked Soos if he could call him with his phone since that seemed to be the only way to reach him.

"Soos?"

"Actually, it's Dipper." The call was emotional at first as both his great uncles wanted to speak to him and catch up with him after five years of being separated, but eventually, they got to the purpose of the call. "So, can I ask you something weird?"

"There's nothing too weird for me to hear anymore, Dipper. Ask away."

"I found these balls of fur or hair or something and they were just...wandering around in the forest- they were really tiny, too. Mabel and I have been in the forest finding creatures lately and normally, I'm able to match their looks up with a name, but this time, I couldn't. It also doesn't help that the journals aren't right next to me." 

"Oh, those are Beard Cubs. Be careful around them; they might stick to your face!" 

That led to a huge conversation about how grown up he sounded and how it felt like he was thirteen yesterday. It wasn't too embarrassing for him to sit through mainly because he had realised just how much he missed both Ford and Stan. If he could somehow drag them back to Gravity Falls through the phone, he wouldn't hesitate to do so.

He caught himself drifting off by the window and did his best to stay awake, but sleep soon won that battle and forced him into submission. He held the hat Wendy had given him five years ago in his hands loosely and let his eyes close.

There were two things that he hated about sleeping now and that was that he would often sleepwalk or have a nightmare. Being in Gravity Falls made no difference in his habits because just an hour later, he started sleepwalking and made his way inside the forest with nothing but the clothes on his back. 

When he finally came to, he was in the middle of the forest under a tree. He sat up and looked around, the sun setting in the distance. He was lucky that there was still light out because he could tell that without it, he'd be unable to see anything- it was hard enough seeing with the sunset now. He took a deep breath and started walking, though he wasn't entirely sure where he was going. Doing his best to remain calm, he quietly went along and did his best to find a way home. 

After ten minutes, he found that he was even more lost than before. He punched himself internally for depriving himself of sleep so much, especially in this weird town. Stuck with just his thoughts, he thought back to Ford's theory of weirdness- or whatever it was called. At this point, it must have been true because not only was he brought back to Gravity Falls by his weird twin sister, not only did he have two great uncles who were _also_ twins, not only was he still finding weird anomalies in this town but he also now started sleepwalking by some form of fate.

Ford's theory must have been true: Gravity Falls was truly a magnet for the strange and bizarre. 

While lost in thought, he tripped over a piece of stone and yelped in surprise once he hit the ground. "Geez..." He turned back around and found broken pieces of stone covered in moss. The pile of rubble seemed to be strewn about and little bits and pieces led to a tree. It was like someone had walked out of the rumble and got caught on some of it, which was strange because he was so far out in the forest that he didn't think anyone would be out here. 

He stood up and picked up a small stick of stone. Looking at it a little closer, he realised that it wasn't just a stick. It stretched out in a line, yeah, but it broke off. A little ways away, he saw what looked to be an outstretched hand. He picked it up, put the pieces together, and slowly realised that he wasn't holding just any pile of rubble; he was holding the rubble of a statue that he had hoped would have never broken.

"Pst..." 

He perked his head up at the sound and dropped the two pieces. He looked around and spun in a circle, clearly terrified of the voice that was near him.

"Um, above you..." 

When he turned his head up, in the branches of the trees, there he was. He could recognise him even if this wasn't his normal form. He swallowed and quietly called up, "B-Bill?" 

 

"I'm actually really glad to see you, Pinetree!" Bill dusted himself off and put on a bright smile. "I'm a little upset that you wouldn't help me out of that tree, but all-in-all, I'm pretty happy to see you!" 

What was going on? Was he hallucinating? Was this a nightmare? 

"For starters, I kind of need your help with a little something. You seem like the only kid around here who could help with that,  _so_ I think I wanna try to make a deal with you and see what you think!"

Seriously, why was Bill Cipher standing in front of him so casually? Was he trying to manipulate him like he always did? His mind was spiralling out of control and he felt his heart beating faster than it ever had in his whole life. He thought he beat him, he thought he was gone for good, he thought so many things and that perfect world was crumbling around him.

"I like the fact that you're completely silent and breathing as quickly as you can! It really tells me that you want to start this plan off, so that's encouraging." 

"I-I thought we got rid of you..."

"Oh, that's my issue, too." Bill jumped and whimpered softly, curling up a little bit. "Ow, ow..." He laughed weakly and stood back up. "I thought I was going to stay in the mindscape forever but Axolotl must've heard my calls in Stanley's mind."

"Axolotl?" He remembered hearing the name before but it felt like such a distant memory.

He completely ignored his questioning tone and carried on. "I think Axolotl may have given me a new form but not one that actually helps me in any way." He laughed and shook his head. "Yeah, no. This body is too frail for me."

"I think I need some time to take this in..." Dipper held his head and took a step back. "Oh my god..." 

"It took me a little bit to get used to it, too!" He jumped and crumpled into a ball as he fell to the ground. "Ow..." 

Dipper looked down at him and asked, "What's happening?" 

He giggled and shakily reached out for him. "Can you help me up?" 

There was no way he was going to take hands with Bill Cipher. That was dangerous with a capital D. "I can't trust you." 

"Oh, that's a low blow, Pinetree..." He was about to laugh but quickly his eyes widened as he whimpered and whined on the ground. "It's not that you  _won't_ or that you  _don't,_ it's that you  _can't._ Well, I get that, but I need you to understand one thing: everything in my new form hurts and I can't do anything." 

Wait, what? 

"Wait, what?"

"It's painful to stay up for so long; I can't float around; I can't break into your mind; I can't do  _anything_ that I used to be able to do. I doubt I can even make a proper deal with you." He gripped onto the grass and looked away from Dipper's eyes. He was clearly embarrassed but most of all, Dipper could tell that he was telling the truth. He'd done some research into lying when Mabel had started taking his things a few years ago and he'd gotten very good at telling when someone was lying to him. 

"Do you know why?" This was the deal breaker; if he didn't give him a good reason why he couldn't do anything, he couldn't believe him.

"I'd like to blame Axolotl." He chuckled and shook his head. "It probably is him just trying to make it harder for me." 

So, he really couldn't do anything. "Wow." He started laughing and couldn't stop, unbelievably happy that he couldn't do  _anything._

"Wh- Hey! Don't laugh at me!" He suddenly yelped and fell to the ground, his body writhing. That's when Dipper realised that he was definitely in pain. 

"Okay, if I'm gonna help you, you have to promise one thing."

"I-I already promise, it's a deal!" He sounded so desperate and Dipper just relished the sound.

"Good! Now, since you agreed so quickly, let me tell you what you just agreed to: you are going to call me Dipper, not Pinetree." 

He thought about that for a moment and nodded. "Okay. Pin-" He shook his head. "Dipper." He groaned a bit and quietly said, "I really, really thought that being in pain would be a lot better than this..." 

"I wonder if that means Axolotl did something else to you." Dipper took his hand and helped him up, realising just how shaky he was. A part of him felt bad for loving how in pain Bill was but the other part was guilt tripping him for feeling bad for this guy anyway. "Can you show me the way out of here?"

Bill looked around and nodded. "I know Gravity Falls like the back of my hand!" He laughed but suddenly stopped and leaned on Dipper, clinging onto him like a kid. "J-Just go straight..."

When they made it to the edge of the town, Bill suddenly collapsed and left Dipper to deal with the situation himself. There was yet another reason to hate Bill Cipher.


	2. Chapter 2

"Come on, why here?" Dipper shook Bill, looking around quickly to make sure no one was around. That's when he realised he needed to make Bill look less recognisable. Maybe ditch the black and yellow tuxedo and dye his hair? If anyone saw him, he was dead- while he wouldn't mind that, he seemed absolutely pathetic. It would just be low if he let him die while he was  _this_ pathetic. "Why did you even pass out? You were fine earlier..." That's when he heard his stomach growl loudly. "Oh. You're starving." 

"Hey, is that Dipper or am I dreaming?" 

He suddenly stood straight up and kicked some shrub on top of Bill to hide him, turning around and locking eyes with  _Wendy Corduroy._ He felt his shoulders tense up and his mouth go dry as he watched her walk over to him. If he was completely honest, he did his best to put his crush on her behind him, but it was still alive and well in his heart. "H-Hey, Wendy!" 

"Dude, I haven't seen you in so long!" She ran over and hugged him tightly. She was  _warm._ She was  _so warm._ "What's been up with you? It's been, what, a decade?" 

"It's been  _half_ a decade, actually." He cleared his throat and continued by saying cooly, "I've been working and living in California, as usual." 

"Have you been doing any paranormal investigations down there?" 

"Yeah," he lied. He tried to put the paranormal behind him once his parents banned him from coming back to Gravity Falls. "I went hunting for Mothman, once."

"Dude, that's so cool!" She laughed and shrugged. "I haven't done much. I'm going to college next week, so I've been packing for that." 

"Wait," he started, raising a shaky finger, "you're going to college?" 

"Yeah, man. I'm gonna live in dorms and party- well, I guess that's not something that's really changing." She laughed and Dipper melted at the sound. "I've always been partying, huh?" 

"Yeah," he agreed with her, nodding along. "I-I kept your hat, by the way. I left it at home, though." He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I kept your hat, too! Let me see..." She placed her backpack down on the ground and got on her knees to pull out his old hat. "I kinda outgrew it, though. It doesn't fit as well as it did." She took it out, looking at it and blowing off the bits of dust that had gathered around it as it sat at the bottom of her bag. "For old times sake?" She looked up at him and handed him the hat. 

"Oh, of course..." He put it back on his head and watched her eyes light up. "Do I still look the same?"

"You look so much the same!" She stood up and circled around him, laughing as she poked his side. "That's crazy..." 

"What?"

"You got taller, but you look pretty much the same!" She ruffled his hair, picked up the cap but stopped herself before putting it away. "Do you want the hat back?" 

"Only if you don't want to keep it," he said with a giggle.

"Okay, I want it really badly, so I'm putting it away." She giggled, put his hat back in her bag, and shoved the bag back onto her back. "I'll get going. I need to grab something before I head off next week." 

Dipper nodded and waved her bye, watching as she walked away. He sighed once she disappeared in the distance and looked up at the sky. "Of course." 

"Of course...what?" Bill was awake though it was clear he was still in pain by how shaky his voice was. 

He shook his head. "Nothing." He looked at him and asked, "Do you want to take the tuxedo jacket off? I wanna make sure you're not the noticeable yellow idiot walking with me." 

"'Yellow idiot?'" He glared at him and quickly countered him with, "I'll have you know that I'm much older than you. I may be weaker in this form and I may not seem like much, but I'm much more experienced and wiser than all beings in the universe combined, Pine- Dipper, and I find it a little stupid of  _you_ to assume that I'm a 'yellow idiot.'" He put on a mischievous smirk and said with some cut to his words one sentence: "I've pretty much destroyed all that you know about me by physically being here, you know."

Dipper shivered and shook his head. He refused to say anything in response and instead helped his jacket off, took off his own hoodie, and helped him inside it. Bill stayed silent the rest of the way but kept his sneer. 

"We're gonna have to go through the back so that Soos doesn't ask about you," Dipper told him as he led him to the back. "I seriously doubt he'd say anything but you never know with him." 

Once they were inside and upstairs, Dipper sighed and shut the door to his and Mabel's room behind him. "Man, it's cosy in here." Bill looked around and crossed his legs, seeming pretty interested in all the small knick-knacks around the room. "Nice snowglobe." 

Dipper wasn't paying attention to all the small comments he was making, sorting through his things and finding nothing for Bill to eat. "I don't know if you know this, but you really need to eat." 

"Eat?" He turned his body to face him and held his head up in his hands like he was bored. 

"What? Do you not know what eating is or do you just not like the idea?" 

"Eating in this form is boring, Pine- Dipper." 

"So what?" He sighed and let his eyes widen when he found a water bottle. "I'm gonna be back with some water for you. You're probably dehydrated." He wandered out of the room and downstairs to fill the water bottle up. Just as he got to the sink, Soos came in and smiled at him.

"Whassup, dude?" 

Dipper looked up and smiled back. "Just getting some water." 

Soos nodded and perked his head up for a moment. "There's food in the fridge, by the way. Neither of you guys have eaten today, so I thought I should tell you." 

"Thanks, Soos."

"No problem, dude." He smiled and said, "I really missed both of you. I was hoping you'd disobey your parents during the summer and come here, but..." He giggled to himself. "I'm just glad to see you again!"

"I'm glad to see you, too, Soos." He'd be more willing to talk to him for a few more minutes if it wasn't for the fact a dream demon turned human was in his room. He watched him walk off. He hoped he was just going to the living room to watch TV. He hoped he stayed away from the stairs or their room in general. He looked in the fridge and got some fruit for Bill, hoping that maybe he'd eat that. Suddenly, he heard Mabel call for him and knew that it had to do with Bill. That  _had_ to do with Bill. 

Quickly, he ran upstairs and opened the door to their room and saw Mabel holding Bill's hands behind his back. "Shooting Star, let me go! This actually really, really hurts!" He winced and grit his teeth when she only made her grip tighter.

"Shut it!" She looked at Dipper and asked, "What do we do with him?" 

"Let him go, Mabel." He walked over calmly after closing the door behind him and carefully got her to let go of him. "He-"

"What?!" She was  _mad,_ but mad did not fully cover exactly how mad she was. She was  _hysterically furious._ "What, so you joke before we get here that we're going to save Bill because I'm crazy and-"

"Hey, hey, don't yell! That's not what's going on!"

"That's exactly what's going on here!" 

Bill cut in with a quick, "You should really put her on a leash."

_"Excuse me?!"_

Dipper quickly stopped her from doing anything rash and glared at Bill. "Listen, he can't even do anything. If he wanted to do anything like make a deal with us or burn the whole town, he would've done it already, right? He has everything he needs to be able to do so and he hasn't." 

Mabel thought about it and nodded. "So, he's powerless?"

"He's a normal guy now. A little nutty, but he's a normal guy."

"Are you calling me crazy over there?" Bill rolled his eyes and suddenly yelled in pain. He started shaking horribly and, through the pain, managed to get out a tiny, "Help..." 

Mabel and Dipper both shared glances and sat on both sides of Bill. Dipper handed him an apple that he had grabbed and Mabel placed the water bottle in front of him, both of them watching him closely. Bill seemed to look at the water bottle strangely but took a bite out of the apple. He shrugged and took tiny bites out of it. "This is fine." 

"So, he's not a fan of apples," Mabel joked.

"What? I said it was fine..." He shook his head and took another bite. "It's a little tough, but it's fine." 

"You don't like how tough it is?" Dipper looked at him weirdly. 

"Are you both just taking turns picking every little thing I say apart?" He shook his head and ate quietly, eventually picking up the water bottle and taking small sips from that. He seemed to already have manners- he wouldn't eat with his mouth open and he'd actually try to be quiet while he ate- so they were happy about that. Mabel and Dipper both took a different corner of the room and let Bill look around quietly at the entire place.

"How'd you find him, anyway?"

"He was in a tree in a tuxedo and out of the statue. No weird or magical statue glow happened at all, so he must've been out for a while before I got there." 

Bill finished his apple and looked around quietly for a place to put it, tossing it at the trashcan in the corner of the room. He smiled excitedly when he made it, letting out a soft chuckle.

"Wait, in a tree?" 

"Yeah! I didn't help him down because I didn't know he was completely useless, so he kind of tumbled out of it. He seemed okay with the pain when he fell out of the tree but looking at him now..." Dipper shook his head and said, "I don't think he likes pain anymore."

"Weird..." 

Waddles took one look at Bill and quickly made his way over to his food dish. Bill waved at him and shook his head when Waddles didn't acknowledge his existence. "Rude. So rude." 

"I mean..." 

"I mean...?" Mabel looked at him and hugged her knees to her chest. 

"I think that..." Dipper watched Bill for a little longer and sighed.

Mabel watched along with him and giggled, saying, "That he's still Bill?" 

He laughed and nodded. "A more harmless Bill, but yes, he's still Bill."

"Still dangerous," she said eerily. 

Bill looked back at the twins and waved, looking away from them awkwardly. There wasn't much he could do, so he just sat there. He tried to place his head on his knees only to find that he was mostly leg and that was impossible for him to do. He groaned and laid back on the floor. 

"He's so bored," Mabel joked.

"He really is, isn't he?" Dipper laughed and shook his head. "Let him be bored. It's late; we should get to bed." 

She nodded and said, "I guess I have to change in the bathroom now. Can't kick him into the hall; it's not gonna go well if Soos finds him..." 

"Is he that obvious?"

"Duh!" Mabel laughed and grabbed her pyjamas. "No one in the world has that yellow of a wardrobe, Dipper." She stepped out of the room and shut the door behind her.

Dipper sighed and started changing. "Uh, Dipper, what do I do with this weird baggy thing? What is this called again?" He pulled at the hoodie Dipper had given him and stood up.

"Just..." He looked around as he shoved himself into a shirt and shrugged, saying, "Throw it on my bed, I guess. Also, that's a hoodie."

"Hoodie..." He took it off and snapped with a quick laugh. "I get it! Because it has a _hood!"_ He laughed and tossed it on the bed. "Good one, Pinetree!" He quickly corrected himself: "I meant Dipper." 

"You really take deals seriously, huh?" He grabbed a book from his bag and placed it on the nightstand as he climbed into bed. 

"Well..." He shook his head. "What am I supposed to do? Refuse to follow through with a deal? Even if I notice a loophole in a deal, I still follow through with it. Stanford let me into his mind while he slept; I took over every time he slept!" 

"Do you know how destructive that was, though?" 

"Destruction is part of life for me, so...whatever!" He laughed and stood up, stretching a bit as he got to his feet. "What harm can my deals cause?" 

"He was paranoid of everyone around him..." 

Bill thought about it for a minute and shrugged. "Paranoia is also part of life. I don't really care that much." 

Dipper wondered for a moment if it was a mistake to bring Bill into the Mystery Shack. 

 

Dipper sat straight up out of bed in a cold sweat, his eyes darting around the room. His breathing was shallow and quick but he quickly controlled himself. Just a nightmare. 

"Why won't you burn...?" Bill was holding a feather that he found on the floor, clearly frustrated that he was not able to burn anything. He snapped his fingers, blew on the feather, rubbed it between his fingers- nothing worked. 

"Why are you trying to burn that?" Dipper looked at him strangely, taking a deep breath to calm himself down some more.

"I keep trying to burn things and it never works." The dawn's light wasn't enough to fully light the room, so his face was ominous in his corner as he stared at the feather.

"Why, though?"

"I don't know why it doesn't work-"

"No, why are you trying to burn things?" 

Bill crossed his legs and sighed, thinking for a moment why he was trying to burn things. "I just wanna burn something," he whined. 

While Bill looked like a person, he was still Bill. He still wanted to destroy things for fun and give him screaming heads or deer teeth. Bill was still Bill and there was probably no changing it. Dipper sighed and shook his head as he stood up. "Don't burn anything, alright?"

"But I want to." 

"I want you to be stuck as a statue, suffering in a mindscape, but that's not happening. People want and don't typically _get_ what they want."

Bill rolled his eyes and said, "You don't have to act so sanctimonious. Demons and dream-eaters don't get what they want all the time, either. Just because you live in this dimension and exist at this time doesn't mean you're extraordinary." He thought and snarkily added, "You're far from extraordinary, actually! As far as I know, the only thing really amazing about you is that your name is Dipper, not something like..." He paused and snapped his fingers. "Mason!" He looked at him with eyes that told Dipper that he still knew everything he knew before. 

"Hey, don't say anything about that." 

"I'm not. What makes you think I'm saying anything?" He chuckled with a hint of venom. "I'm only saying that might be the only thing that makes you extraordinary."

Dipper shook his head and sighed, picking up a journal from his bag. "Just stay quiet."

Bill watched him as he took a pen and started writing. "You still don't like me. Let me correct myself: you  _can't_ like me." He laughed and leaned against the wall. "Oh, well. Maybe your idiot sister will like me soon." 

He looked up at him angrily. "Do not call her stupid."

"'Don't do this, don't do that-' doesn't that ever get boring? You place so many restrictions on me that I have to think you place restrictions on yourself all the time." 

"Shut up."

"Am I getting on your nerves? Oh, wonderful! I feel so happy knowing that..." He chuckled and took a deep breath, tilting his head up to the ceiling. "How about I tell you some of the dimensions I was forced to wander while I was gone? Let's see..." 

"Don't talk."

"There was the dimension where you weren't born which was  _apparently_ the perfect dimension."

"Bill."

"I loved destroying that dimension. It was funny; once I ruined that dimension,  _you_ and your  _idiot sister_ were born!"

_"Bill."_ Dipper looked up at him and said, "You're lying to me. You were stuck in the mindscape and that means that you couldn't travel from dimension to dimension. If you say any lie like that again, I'll be sure to kick you out of this house or tell Ford about you and we can see just how big you are." 

Bill seemed to back off, quietly saying, "You're smart." 

"What?"

"I said that you're smart. You saw through my lie." 

"You  _were_ lying." 

"You're also intimidating," Bill admitted that last part with a bit of hesitance. 

There was one thing about Bill that Dipper liked: he had some form of resignation.


	3. Chapter 3

Mabel hopped into the room and suddenly grabbed a stack of papers under her bed, tossing them into Bill's hands. "Those are rules you need to abide by!"

He looked at the stack and back up at Mabel, very confused. "Why?"

She sighed and started explaining. "Because you're living with us now. You can't just...do whatever you want. I don't think Soos knows you're here- and if he did, he'd totally freak out!"

"Yeah, but..." He looked down at the stack and groaned. "I don't wanna read all this..." 

She rolled her eyes and said, "Well, that's sad, ain't it? You gotta read it, otherwise, you'll get into tons of trouble and probably get killed and honestly, I'd feel pretty guilty even if you're still crazy."

"I'm not crazy," he said, "not crazy at all. I'm  _bored."_

She shivered and shook her head. "Creepy, too. When you're bored, you want to set fire to the place?"

He jumped and looked up at her from the floor. "Wait, he told you about that?"

"Uh, duh! He tells me pretty much anything if I should know!"

"You don't have to know about that!"

"Yes, I do!"

"No, you don't!"

_"Bill!"_

_"Shooting Star!"_

 

Dipper was quickly grabbing clothes that he thought would fit Bill, unsure of whether or not he should even waste money on him. The issue he was having was knowing whether or not Bill would even wear the clothes let alone go out in public. It was hard to read Bill no matter how much time he had spent trying to analyze him. There was no telling what he was thinking at any given point in time.

He finally chose to put his money into some clothes for Bill because he couldn't just hold himself up in the attic forever. There was no way that was happening in a million years. Like it or not, he was going to leave the attic at some point and he was going to  _like it._ He was not putting up with him for the whole winter there nor was he going to teach him anything. He deserved nothing like that for what he had tried to do five years ago.

Dipper nodded to himself and walked out of the store with his paid for clothes, heading back to the shack. 

"Is that Dipper Pines or am I seein' things?" 

He perked his head up and turned to see...a guy. He wasn't entirely sure who this was at first glance, but then he noticed the subtle baby face and perfectly styled hair. He squinted and realised who it was. "Gideon?"

"You bet your stars!" He gave him a smile, coming off more friendly than he did when they were younger. He must've been serious about trying to act like a normal kid because now, he came off as a well-rounded adult. "My Lord, I haven't seen you in years! Where'd you run off to? Did ya miss us?" 

"It's kind of complicated," Dipper chuckled, placing a hand on the back of his neck. It was almost creepy to see Gideon so normal. He wanted to ask if he still had prison buddies but quickly decided against it, thinking that might come off as rude. "I stayed in California for most of these years with my parents."

"Oh, I see." Gideon nodded and giggled. "Did your folks hear 'bout what happened up here?" 

"Absolutely." 

Gideon seemed to feel this general sense of unease beaming off of Dipper because shortly after his answer, he asked, "What's wrong? You look like you're hiding something."

"I'm not really hiding anything..." When he said that, it was somewhat true. Gideon was asking about the situation and where he was for all these years and he had nothing to hide about that. What was really worrying him was when he was going to ask why he was carrying clothes when he probably had his own clothes back at the shack. He feared that at some point in the conversation, that was going to pop up and he was going to be so nervous that he wouldn't even know how to answer properly.

Fortunately, Gideon didn't ask anything like that. He nodded along with Dipper's strange behaviour until he was called from somewhere far away by a group of people. "Oh! Those are my friends!" He let out a soft giggle and waved, backing up and saying, "It was nice seein' you again!" 

"You too, Gideon." He sighed in relief once he was out of earshot and continued trudging towards the shack. 

When he finally came in and squeezed past the crowd of tourists, he climbed up the stairs and unlocked the door. "I'm back-"

"I'm gonna kill you!" 

"Not if I kill you first!" Bill and Mabel both crashed into each other and started yanking on each others hair, kicking, punching- anything they could do to tear the other apart. 

"Guys!" Dipper hastily dropped the bags and pulled them apart, struggling with Mabel a lot more than Bill. "Come on! There are people downstairs!"

After a few moments of yelling back and forth, Dipper finally shut them up for a little bit and stayed in between them, keeping them away from each other. They were giving each other looks that could kill and were audibly panting from anger. He wasn't entirely sure what made them so mad that they felt they had to go at each other's throats to solve the situation, but he wasn't going to have it. 

"Listen, we can't just kill each other."

"Why not?" Mabel shot a look at Dipper, gripping onto her sweater tightly. 

"What do you mean, 'why not?' We can't just get into fights and try to kill each other!"

"I meant what I asked, Dipper!" She came closer and narrowed her eyes, her brows furrowing. "Bill tried to kill us! Do you not remember that?!"

"Of course I remember that! I'm still upset and scarred because of it, Mabel, but I don't think the solution to all that pain is killing him!" 

"Then what do we do?!"

"Mabel, were you seriously considering  _killing him?_ What is wrong with you?" 

"What's wrong with  _me?_ What's wrong with  _you?!"_

"Homicidal thoughts aren't normal! Nothing's wrong with me but something's wrong with you!"

"Can we just agree that you're both weird and call it a day? This argument's boring." 

The twins turned their heads simultaneously towards Bill, who was already looking through the clothes that Dipper had bought for him. "Excuse me?" 

"Really, it's stupid. Fighting over whether or not you should kill me? Just feed me to the dogs already!" He laughed and pulled out a sweater, looking at it strangely. "I think that would be fun. Dogs are pretty vicious!"

"Not really," Mabel commented. "Dogs can be sweet."

"Oh, please, those things? They hate me. I'd love to see your faces if a dog ripped out my throat. That would be a fun day." 

They shared glances and shook their heads after trembling. "Gross," Dipper muttered. 

"Oh, about the homicidal thoughts thing: I know that  _both_ of you have had homicidal thoughts before- about each other! Your plans were both very intricate but very flawed."

"Wait, what?" Mabel looked at Dipper, suddenly shocked. "You what?"

"He's obviously lying," Dipper deflected. "He can't make deals or set us on fire, so he just lies and tries to tear everyone apart."

Mabel nodded warily, taking a small step away from Dipper. He looked at her with bewilderment in his eyes but quickly dropped the face once Bill stood up. "Dipper's the only one in this room who's kind of smart when compared to me. I maintain what I said: I'm impressed, kid!" 

Dipper sighed and sat down on his bed, letting Mabel look through the clothes he bought for Bill. "These are so nice...Bill, come on, try these on!"

"What?" He shook his head and scoffed at her request, letting her take him by the wrist and shove the sweater over his head. He took off the tuxedo jacket and button up off, adjusting the sweater and looking at himself. "It's alright." 

"Oh, you love it!" Mabel laughed and picked up another sweater.

It was weird how quickly Mabel had seemed to calm down around Bill. Maybe this was her way of getting used to him. She had always tried to drown people in kindness when she first met them, right? No, this was different. Bill was clearly someone they'd known about for a while and were supposed to be scared of. Dipper couldn't explain to himself why she was so happy-go-lucky all of a sudden.

Another thing that seemed strange was Bill's lack of fight in him. He'd figured that Bill would be beyond stubborn but he only quietly objected to things. He was different from how he would act five years ago and that's all Dipper could figure out while he watched them interact.

"This one might look a lot better, actually," Mabel said as she picked up a sweater. Bill stayed withdrawn, messing with his sleeves and studying at himself. He wasn't even _admiring_ himself, he was just...looking. "Bill?" 

He lifted his head back up and looked her in her eyes. "What?"

"What's up with you?" She handed him the sweater and laughed, bending down to look through the bag of clothes. 

"What do you mean?" 

Suddenly, the door opened and revealed two men that Bill was not ready to see. 

"Kids!"

"G-Grunkle Stan?" Dipper and Mabel stared at each other for a moment. They weren't supposed to be here! They were supposed to be somewhere halfway across the world, looking for everything paranormal! Why were they  _here?!_

"You've both gotten so old!" He lifted them up into a hug and laughed heartily.

"Says you, old man!" Mabel laughed and hugged him back, allowing Dipper to escape for a moment to take care of Bill. She ran over to Ford and dragged Stan with her, talking and laughing to distract them.

Dipper quickly grabbed a notebook and pen and handed both to Bill. "Don't say anything; you're now mute." Bill nodded and looked down at the notebook, visibly shaking. He could already feel that this wasn't going to go well. Dipper quickly stood next to Mabel and greeted his uncles, hoping that he didn't even have to introduce them to Bill. What fake name was he going to give them?

Unfortunately, they quickly realised that Bill  _was_ definitely there. "Who's this?"

"Oh, this is-"

Bill held up the notebook, looking innocently at Stan and Ford. On the notebook, he scrawled in neat handwriting, "I go by Muse."

 

"Are you stupid?!" Dipper was shaking Bill by his shoulders, furious with his name choice. "'Muse?!' You want to be called  _'Muse?!'"_

"What? I'm just poking fun at Ford! Plus, they fell for it, anyway!" He laughed and backed up, sinking into the bed behind him. 

"You..." He shook his head and rubbed between his eyes. "They didn't fall for it immediately, Bill. They grilled you and then decided that you were 'Muse.' You put yourself in grave danger! I don't know what they would've done had they figured out you were  _you!"_

"Does that mean you secretly  _care_ about what happens to me? Oh, wow! Are we  _friends,_ Pinetree?!"

"I don't care what happens to you; I care what happens to me when they find out I was keeping you safe!" He groaned and took a few steps away from him, sighing. He needed a minute to himself but he knew he wasn't going to get it.

Bill sat up and looked at him weirdly. "I meant to say Dipper. 'Pinetree' just kind of slipped out." 

"I really don't care." He didn't. He couldn't care less whether he called him Dipper or Pinetree. It was all the same.

Bill watched him for a moment, thinking about something to say. After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke up. "You woke up last night from a nightmare."

He looked back at him and nodded. "Yeah."

"What was that about?"

"Why do you care?" He stopped himself from lashing out at him and shook his head. "It's nothing you need to know about."

"Oh. Sorry for asking." 

Dipper picked up a book and started to read, suddenly realising what just happened. "Wait, what?"

"What?"

"Did you just say sorry?"

"I...yes, I did. Am I not allowed to say sorry?" He seemed to be getting defensive, his shoulders getting tense as his eyes darted away to the floor.

"It's not that you're not allowed to- I'm pretty happy that you said sorry, actually." He gave him a soft smile and placed his book on the nightstand. "It just caught me off guard."

"I..." Bill started to fight with him but abruptly stopped himself. "I don't usually say sorry."

"That's why it made me happy."

He looked at him weirdly and shook his head disdainfully, hopping off the bed. "My body hurts again, especially in the middle."

"It's called hunger, Bill. You need to eat every so often." 

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." He rubbed the back of his neck and seemed almost embarrassed.

"Well, come on. Let's get food." He started to walk out when he jumped up to grab his journal, keeping it at his side. "I came up with a few things that you should know now that you're human. We can talk about it while we eat!"

Bill looked at him strangely and shrugged. "Alright..."

Even if he seemed disinterested, Dipper had an idea of what to talk about now that he was starting to exhibit emotions. 


	4. Chapter 4

"First off," Dipper started as he sat in the booth with Bill, "I have no clue what this was caused by."

"You mean me being human? Axolotl did this."

"Okay, who's Axolotl?"

Before Bill could answer, Mabel jumped in next to Dipper, surprising him with a quick, "I'm here!"

"I never said that you could come..."

"Well, I came anyway." She laughed and looked over at his notebook. "Wow! You've been working really hard, huh?"

Bill started to stand up a bit to peek at what he'd written, but Dipper quickly pulled his notes to his chest. "Don't spoil it for him!"

"Can I see? I wanna see what you think about this!" 

"No!"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!"

"Only if you buy me a soda!"

Mabel froze for a minute and whined out, "But they're so expensive here..."

"Then you don't get to see."

"Man..." She leaned back in her seat and let out a puff of air. As she crossed her arms, Dipper went ahead and brought the notebook out for him to look at. There was a whole range of topics to cover, from the fact that he didn't like pain anymore to the most recent anomaly that he could see: the idea that Bill could  _feel_ for  _anything._ He decided it'd be best to start with something that was easily explained.

"So, another thing that I noticed was the fact that you can't do anything like make deals or set fires or literally anything else that you could do before."

"Yeah, so?" He leaned back as the waitress came by and gave him his food. He looked at the plate strangely, looked at Mabel, and then back down at the plate.

"I think that, even if you were given a human form, that wouldn't matter. You should be able to do all those things, no matter the form." Bill looked up, suddenly interested in the conversation. Mabel giggled and picked up a french fry on his plate, raising it up to his lips to see if he would bite. He was so focused that he took it, making her hide in her sweater to laugh. All the while, Dipper was talking about his theories and ideas on how this all worked. "Maybe the fact that you can't do anything is because you're so weak. You don't even know how to take care of yourself like this and it's clear from the fact that you forgot you had to eat today. If getting you up to speed on taking care of yourself doesn't work, then we'll have to see if your body isn't built to handle power like that."

"What do you mean by that? My body isn't built to handle starting fires on a whim?"

"Along those lines, yeah. I think it's more of...you're not a demon anymore. Think of it like you were in a game and you got to level 100, but then, you reset your character and go back to level 1. You know how to get your skills and you can technically get them back but you won't be able to use them because you're such a low level."

"Oh! So, I just have to get good!"

Dipper could not figure out if that was intentional or not but he knew that Mabel found it  _hilarious._ "Y-Yeah, basically." He was doing his best to not laugh with her. "If that still doesn't work and you still can't do anything, then that might just be Axolotl telling you that you aren't a dream demon anymore. You can't do anything because it doesn't want you to be able to do anything."

"Man..." He leaned forward into the palm of his hand and let Mabel feed him another french fry. "I have a feeling Axolotl's cursed me."

"We'll have to see." Dipper stretched and looked back up from his notebook. He cocked an eyebrow and asked, "Aren't you going to eat?"

Bill looked down and grimaced at the plate. "I don't know..."

Dipper looked at it and sighed. "You'll be okay. Trust me, the burger's fine. It's just the regular stuff, dude."

He seemed to ease up with his reassurance, taking a small bite and leaning back in his seat for a moment. "It's okay. I mean, I wouldn't eat it  _all the time,_ but it's okay."

"Do you not like greasy food?" 

Bill thought for a moment and nodded. "I don't know, it just grosses me out."

Mabel peeked up and giggled. "A  _burger_ grosses you out?"

"Not the burger; the grease, as your brother just said."

"You don't even know what grease is, do you?"

"Of course I know what grease is. You think I don't know what grease is? I'm a dream demon, not a moron."

"Okay, let's back it up," Dipper cut in. "Let's get back on topic." He carefully skimmed through his notes and said, "This is actually a good time to bring this up! You didn't really feel emotions before, right?"

"That's not entirely true," Bill corrected him. "I felt anger and joy just like you."

"But you didn't get sad or feel regretful, right?"

"I felt a lot of regrets when I let that stupid assistant of Ford's figure out who I was. What was his name again? McBucket?"

"McGucket- and he isn't stupid. He's actually pretty genius, though a bit crazy." 

"Whatever. I was regretful there because that's when my whole plan spiralled out of control."

Dipper thought for a moment and, to prove his point, asked, "Do you know what happened after that?"

"Ford lost his assistant because he was so stupid, he got paranoid of literally everyone around him, he sucked himself into the portal, yadda, yadda, yadda- look, Dipper, I really don't care-"

"Ford lost his  _friend_ because of a whole bunch of issues that started with you."

"That's not true at all. From what I remember, the shaky foundation was made because he was so dependent on memory erasure."

"No, no, listen. Ford would have probably helped McGucket had he had more faith in him, okay? Where did that shake in trust happen?"

Bill thought for a second and his face suddenly twisted into an expression that Dipper couldn't read. "Me."

"Exactly. He'd been friends with him for a long time and that ended when you convinced him that McGucket was after him- am I correct?"

"I-I mean, something like that, yeah..."

"And once he was gone, Ford started getting paranoid over you, right? So, he did all he could to stop you from reading his findings, right? That all led up to him trying to hide the journals from you and handing the journal off to his brother, Stanley. They already had a bad relationship because of an argument and I'm sure you knew this when you got to know Ford, right?"

"That's all correct, yes..."

"It should have been clear to you what the outcome of that would be but you kept going, right?"

"Hey, wait, don't blame that on me!" He sat up in his seat and glared at him from across the table. "I did not know that Ford was going to do all this just to stop me. I had no idea that he was so stupid to think that he could ever stop me in the first place!"

"Bill, you knew what was going to happen all along. You are smart enough to know what the outcome should be."

"I-I am not smart enough to read the future! M-M-Maybe you're wrong!" He was clearly getting flustered, stumbling over his words and arguments that were meant to stop the blame from getting pinned on him. Dipper had him in a corner.

"You let Ford get so paranoid that he called his twin brother just to tell him to run away with stuff that he didn't want  _you_ to read."

"No, no, I didn't!"

"You knew that Stan would get mad because of the type of person he was-"

"No!"

"-and you didn't care that a fight would start-"

"That's not it at all! You've got it all wrong!"

"-and you awaited my uncle Ford in the nightmare realm that you made."

"You're so stupid!"

"When the portal opened, you waited so  _eagerly_ just to maul him in a world that you thought he couldn't survive in-"

"Dipper!"

"-and didn't care about a single thing that would happen with all the damage you caused!"

 _"Shut up!"_ He was shaking horribly and staring at him with his mouth pulled into a frown. His eyes screamed out how angry he was, but his upper lip quivered ever so slightly. He swallowed as he realised the restaurant went completely silent once he screamed, quickly sinking in his seat. 

"T-That might have been a bit much..." Mabel glanced between the two and carefully reached across for Bill. "You did bad stuff and it's better to admit that than ignore it. It actually does a lot more than ignoring it." 

He refused to speak, waiting for the building to get loud again. He didn't want to talk to either of them anymore. He stared down a the floor for the rest of the time, finishing his meal when Mabel forced him to. 

"We can't let you starve, okay?"

He only stared away at the booth wall.

 

Dipper, now in his pyjamas and staring at the ceiling, wondered for a moment if he should apologise. What he said was entirely correct so there should be no reason to say sorry, but at the same time, Bill hadn't spoken in a while. It made him feel guilty for calling him out. He let out a sigh and sat up, finally deciding. A look at the clock told him to go back to bed because of how late it was, but he had to say sorry. He couldn't sleep when he was this guilty. 

He looked around the room and saw Bill sitting in his usual spot, dosing off. He couldn't help but look at him strangely because he was actually falling asleep. He hadn't seen him sleeping since he first saw him as a human. When he said sleeping, he meant dreaming and being unconscious for more than two minutes. He carefully approached him and whispered, "You okay?"

He opened his eyes a bit and quickly rubbed them when he realised Dipper was in front of him. "What?"

"You look exhausted," he said as he bent down to look at him. "When was the last time you slept?"

Bill thought for a moment and answered, "I think...the day you found me."

"Okay, that explains it..." He sighed and looked around. "Can you do me a favour and stay here while I get a few things?"

"Um...okay." He nodded sleepily and stretched, staying put as he told him to. His eyes closed as soon as he heard the door close.

It felt like only a few seconds had passed when Dipper shook him awake, confusing him slightly. "Bill, come on..."

"You're fast," he mumbled softly.

"I've been making you a little bed for ten minutes. You've just been asleep." 

"Oh..." He giggled and leaned forward, falling back asleep as he said, "That makes more sense..."

Dipper sighed and carefully dragged him into the makeshift bed, fixing his head on the pillow and tucking him in. Bill was quiet and appeared pretty comfortable, which was good with Dipper. This was the most he could provide him, so he was happy he was okay with it. "Get some sleep. Goodnight." He got to his feet and walked back to his bed, climbing under the sheets. Just as he plopped his head down on the pillow, he heard Bill stir awake.

"Hey, Pinetree..." 

"What is it?"

"Sorry for yelling at you..."

Dipper thought about apologising for a moment but then thought that Bill would never remember this conversation because of how exhausted he was. He nodded and said, "You don't need to be sorry. It's fine."

"Oh...okay..." He let out a soft breath and fell asleep on his side. 

Dipper wasn't ever going to say sorry for what he did. He was in the right and he knew it.

 

Bill's eyes fluttered open in the morning, slowly realising that he did not like the glow in the room  _at all._ As a matter of fact, if the sun could stop existing at that moment, he would've loved that. With a soft whine, he buried most of his face in his blanket and pillow that he partially remembered getting last night. For a moment, he could feel himself falling back asleep- until Mabel shook him and said, "I saw you waking up!" He whined again and curled into a tighter ball. 

"Mabel, let him sleep." 

He started to say something, thinking that was Dipper telling her to do that, only to have his mouth covered by her hand that smelled like...vanilla? Why was she putting her hands in  _vanilla?_ Gross.

"Okay, Ford!" 

He felt her take her hand off his face, allowing him to decide whether or not he wanted to look over at Ford or if he wanted to go back to sleep. A part of him thought that if he looked up at Ford, he wouldn't be able to sleep out of fear, but the other part of him thought that Ford might find it unnatural if he didn't look at him. He forced his eyes to sleepily glance over at him, seeing him dressed for the day. It was weird to see him without being greeted with a serious look of anger and instead, with a cordial smile. He chuckled softly and realised that he was in the clear. There was nothing to worry about. He was "Muse."

He gave him a thumbs up and went back to sleep, feeling pretty...safe. Yeah, that was a good word. He felt safe.


End file.
